House Arrest Over for Aung San Suu Kyi

Posted on May 26, 2009

Myanmar ended the six-year house arrest of Nobel Peace laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday. She remains in detention, however, as her trial continues over whether she breached detention conditions by letting an American intruder into her house last month.

The Washington Post:

Burma’s military government has officially ended the six-year house arrest of opposition leader and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, but she remains in prison while awaiting the outcome of her trial for breach of the terms of her detention.

Suu Kyi, who is accused of allowing a U.S. citizen who swam to her lakeside house to spend the night there, took the stand Tuesday. She said she gave only “temporary shelter” to John W. Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Mo., according to reporters and diplomats who were present at the court in Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison.

Asked by a judge whether she had violated the terms of her detention under the military government’s Law Safeguarding the State from the Dangers of Subversive Elements, Suu Kyi responded, “I didn’t.”